Method and system to automatically qualifying a party to participate in a network-based commerce transaction

ABSTRACT

A system to facilitate network-based commerce includes receiving information relating to an item to be transacted via a network-based commerce system from a first party. Criterion information specifying at least one criterion to be satisfied by a second party in order for the second party to be qualified to transact for the item via the network-based commerce system is received from the first party. An automatic determination is made as to whether the second party satisfies the at least one criterion and if so, then the second party is automatically qualified to transact for the item via the network-based commerce system.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a national application based on InternationalApplication WO 02/44860, filed Nov. 30, 2001, which claimed the benefitof the filing date of U.S. utility patent application Ser. No.09/881,911, filed Jun. 15, 2001, and the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e)of U.S. provisional application No. 60/250,637, filed Nov. 30, 2000.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of network-based andelectronic commerce. Specifically, the present invention relates to thequalification of a party to participate within a network-based commercetransaction facilitated by a network-based commerce facility such as,for example, an Internet-based shopping or auction facility.

ART BACKGROUND

More and more Internet users are realizing the ease and convenience ofbuying and selling online by way of person-to-person online trading (ortransaction processing) pioneered by eBay Inc. As a result, collectors,hobbyists, small dealers, unique item seekers, bargain hunters, andother consumers are able to buy and sell millions of items at variousonline shopping sites.

The success of the online shopping sites, such as the Internet-basedshopping facilities, depends upon their ability to provide enjoyableshopping experiences and easy-to-use and reliable environments in whichbuyers and sellers can conduct business efficiently. The online shoppingsites can offer their services by facilitating auctions or by allowingsellers to offer their offerings for fixed prices. The currentInternet-based shopping facilities have been presented with publicrelations risks due to excessive bid retraction and cancellationactivities. For example, the reputation of eBay Inc. as a safe tradingplace was threatened because of the excessive bid retraction andcancellation activities during the recent auction of the Titanic deckchair and other high profile listings. It is estimated that as many aseighty percent of the bids made on the Internet-based shoppingfacilities are bogus.

Network-based commerce has of course found broad application beyondperson-to-person trading, and is extensively used to performbusiness-to-business (B2B) trading. Within the B2B environment, a party(e.g., potential buyer) may engage in a transaction activity or have aprofile that is undesirable from the perspective of a further party(e.g., a potential seller).

In the light of the foregoing, there is a need to enhance the trust andconfidence within online transaction facilities. Particularly, it wouldbe valuable and useful to provide a party to an online transaction witha degree of confidence that a further party is sincere and qualified toengage in a transaction process.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided amethod to facilitate network-based commerce. Item information relatingto an item to be transacted via a network-based commerce system isreceived from a first party. Criterion information specifying at leastone criterion to be satisfied by a second party in order for the secondparty to be qualified to transact for the item via the network-basedcommerce system is received from the first party. An automaticdetermination is made as to whether the second party satisfies the atleast one criterion and if so, then the second party is automaticallyqualified to transact for the item via the network-based commercesystem.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a method to facilitate network-based shopping. A communicationbetween a network-based auction facility and a seller is facilitatedwhereby the seller authorizes a bidder to bid on an offering offered forsale by the seller is disclosed.

Furthermore, the method comprises automatically recording the bidder asauthorized to bid on the offering responsive to the communication.

Other features of the present invention will be apparent from theaccompanying drawings and from the detailed description that follows.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated by way of example and notlimitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which likereferences indicate similar elements, and in which:

FIG. 1 is block diagram illustrating an exemplary network-based commercefacility in the form of an Internet-based auction facility.

FIG. 2 illustrates the web home page for an exemplary Internet-basedauction facility.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary pre-approve bidders main web page for anexemplary Internet-based auction facility.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary pre-approve bidders logon web page foran exemplary Internet-based auctions facility.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary pre-approve bidders form web page for anexemplary Internet-based auctions facility.

FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate an exemplary view item web page for anexemplary Internet-based auction facility.

FIG. 6C illustrates an exemplary error message.

FIG. 7 is a database diagram illustrating an exemplary database for theInternet-based auction facility.

FIG. 8 is a diagrammatic representation of an exemplary embodiment ofthe bidder feedback profile summary table.

FIG. 9 is a diagrammatic representation of one exemplary embodiment ofthe bidder feedback profile details table.

FIG. 10 illustrates the flow chart of one embodiment of the method forseller authorized bidding through an Internet-based auction facility.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary commerce systemthat may at least partially perform an automatic qualification, ordisqualification, of a second party to transact for an item.

FIG. 12 is a flow chart illustrating a method, according to an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention, whereby a first party (e.g., aseller user) may define and specify criteria to be satisfied by a secondparty (e.g., a buyer user) in order for the second party to beautomatically qualified to transact for a specific item, or for a numberof items (e.g., all items offered for sale by the first party).

FIG. 13 is a diagrammatic representation of an item and criterioninformation input user interface, according to one exemplary embodimentof the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a diagrammatic representation of an exemplary items table.

FIG. 15 is a diagrammatic representation of an exemplary criteria table.

FIG. 16 is a flow chart illustrating a first exemplary method whereby acommerce system may automatically qualify a second party to transact, ordisqualify a second party from transacting, with respect to a particularitem, or group of items.

FIG. 17 is a flow chart illustrating a second exemplary method whereby acommerce system may automatically qualify a second party to transact, ordisqualify a second party from transacting, with respect to a particularitem, or group of items.

FIG. 18 provides diagrammatic representations of exemplary profiletables.

FIG. 19 shows a diagrammatic representation of machine in the exemplaryform of a computer system within which a set of instructions, forcausing the machine to perform any one of the methodologies discussedabove, may be executed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A method and system to qualify a party to transact with respect to anitem via a network-based commerce system are described. In oneembodiment, this qualification is manually performed by implementingseller-authorized transacting privileges. In one embodiment, and thepresent invention proposes a method and system whereby a first party(e.g., a seller) can authorize transacting privileges (e.g., buyingprivileges) for a second party (e.g., a buyer) to transact for an itemmessage dated with the first party. The transacting privileges caninclude, for example, the authorization to bid on an auction listing ofthe first party and/or the authorization to offer to buy a fixed pricelisting of the first party. A listing may, for example, relate to anitem. In this description, the terms listing and item and offering areused interchangeably. Unauthorized bidders are disabled (or barred) fromtransacting for an item.

An advantage of one embodiment of the present invention is that a firstparty (e.g., a seller) does not manually have to monitor or participatein transacting activities because only the parties manually pre-approvedby the first party, or automatically qualified by the commerce systemutilizing predefined criteria specified by the first party, are allowedto transact (e.g., bid on or offer to buy) for an item associated withthe first party. The shoppers (or potential buyers) also benefit fromthis embodiment of the present invention because a healthier tradingenvironment is created because only the pre-approved (or qualified)candidates are allowed to compete for a particular item. The communityof users of a commerce system benefits in general because the commercesystem is perceived to facilitate worthwhile transacting because onlythe serious parties are allowed to transact for an item (e.g., bid onand offer to buy the listings). Seller authorized buying privileges canbe requested by any seller with privileges to list on the commercesystem (e.g., a shopping facility) and for any listing, although thesellers with high profile or high value listings would have moreincentive to do so. Further, sellers wishing to restrict a pool ofpotential buyers would also find certain embodiments of the presentinvention useful. Of course, the invention may also find applicationwhere a buyer is soliciting offers (e.g., request for quotes) and wishesto restrict a pool of potential suppliers.

In the at least part of ensuing description, a method and system toqualify a party to transact with respect to an item utilizing a commercesystem in the exemplary form of network-based auction facility aredescribed. It will be appreciated that the method and system are alsoapplicable to a commerce system in the form of a network-basedfixed-price facility or a commerce system that provides a multitude oftransaction processes (e.g., any number of types of auction transactionprocesses and any number of fixed-price transaction processes). Invarious embodiments of the present invention, a first party is empoweredto use different mechanisms to qualify parties to transact for aparticular item. For example, considering an auction facility as anexample of a commerce system, a seller may view a potential bidder'sbidding history and profile to determine whether or not to pre-approvethe bidder to bid on a listing. It is understood that if the vettingprocess is too strict, the conversion rate on the item will be affected.To mitigate, in one embodiment, the commerce system educates the sellersto use proper vetting mechanism to choose their bidders. Also, in oneembodiment, the seller may remove the pre-approval restriction anytimeduring an auction. For example, the seller may wish to take the risk toopen the listing to all potential bidders if the pre-approvalrestriction produces no bids or the bids amounts are low. In oneembodiment, the seller may add and remove the pre-approval restrictionmultiple times during the auction.

In one embodiment, the seller may remove a bidder from the pre-approvedlist after the seller has added the bidder to the pre-approved list. Inone embodiment, the seller may add bidders to and remove bidders fromthe pre-approved list multiple times during the auction of the listing.In one embodiment, the seller may request the pre-approval of biddersfor his/her listing without specifying any bidders initially, and thenadd the bidders to the pre-approved list from time to time. In oneembodiment, the seller has the choice to apply the pre-approve bidderslist from a prior or current listing to all on-going listings with theauction facility and/or any future listings. In one embodiment, theseller may pre-approve the bidders individually or in a bulk. In oneembodiment, the seller may view the list of the pre-approved bidders andtheir respective Usernames/email addresses by logging on to the auctionfacility web site and providing the listing identification number.

In one embodiment, the parties within a specific geographical region(e.g. the United States of America) may be automatically pre-approved tobid on an item. In one embodiment, only the predetermined currencies canbe used to bid on a listing.

Further, while the exemplary embodiment described herein describesellers as qualifying potential buyers, it will be appreciated that theinvention may be utilized by buyers to qualify potential sellers.

In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the present invention. It will be evident, however, toone skilled in the art that the present invention may be practicedwithout these specific details.

For the purposes of the present specification, the terms “items” shallbe deemed to include products, goods and services. The term “party”shall be deemed to include any party (human or automated) that iscapable of transacting for an item or utilizing commerce system. Theterm “party” shall accordingly include buyers, sellers, shoppers,customers, bidders etc.

Qualification/Disqualification of a Party to Transact-Auction FacilityExemplary Embodiment

FIG. 1 is block diagram illustrating an exemplary commerce system in theform of an Internet-based auction facility 10. While an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention is described within the context ofan auction facility 10, it will be appreciated by those skilled in theart that the invention will find application in many different types ofnetwork-based commerce systems.

The auction facility 10 includes an authorization module 40 and acommunications module 42. The authorization module 40 includes CGIservers 18 (or application servers) that provide an intelligentinterface to the back-end of the auction facility 10, a database engineserver 22 and a database 23. The communications module 42 includes oneor more of a number of types of front-end servers, namely page servers12 (or Web servers) that deliver web pages (e.g., markup languagedocuments), picture servers 14 that dynamically deliver images to bedisplayed within Web pages, listing servers 16, CGI servers 18, andsearch servers 20 that handle search requests to the facility 10. E-mailservers 21 provide, inter alia, automated e-mail communications to theusers of the auction facility 10.

The back-end servers include a database engine server 22, a search indexserver 24 and a credit card database server 26, each of which maintainsand facilitates access to a respective database.

The Internet-based auction facility 10 may be accessed by a clientprogram 30, such as a browser (e.g., the Internet Explorer distributedby Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash.) that executes on a client machine32 and accesses the auction facility 10 via a network such as, forexample, the Internet 34. The sellers and the buyers (or bidders) accessthe auction facility 10 through the client machines 32. Other examplesof networks that a client may utilize to access the auction facility 10include a wide area network (WAN), a local area network (LAN), awireless network (e.g., a cellular network), the Plain Old TelephoneService (POTS) network or as the Public Switched Telephone Network(PSTN).

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary web home page 100 that may be generatedby the Internet-based auction facility 10. The home page 100 includes a“seller services” link 102, which provides access to the seller servicespage. The seller services page, in turn, includes a buying and sellingtools link, which provides access to the buying and selling tools page.The buying and selling tools page, in turn, includes a pre-approvebidders link, which provides access to the pre-approve bidders logon webpage.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary pre-approve bidders logon web page 200that may be generated by the Internet-based auction facility 10. Thepre-approve logon page 200 prompts the seller to provide a properusername 202 and password 204. When the seller provides the properusername 202 and password 204, the logon page 200 provides access to thepre-approve bidders main web page.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary pre-approve bidders main web page 300that may be generated by the Internet-based auction facility 10. Thepre-approve bidders main page 300 displays currently active auctionlistings 302 and past auction listings 304 for the particular seller.The pre-approve bidders main page 300 includes an “edit” link 306, whichallows the seller to edit the pre-approve bidders list for thecorresponding listing 302. The editing can include adding bidders to orsubtracting bidders from the pre-approve bidders list. The pre-approvebidders main page 300 also includes a “deactivate” link 308, whichallows the seller to deactivate the pre-approve bidders list such thatpotential bidders need not seek the seller's authorization to bid on thelisting. If the seller removes the pre-approval restriction during anauction, the auction facility 10 requests the seller to inform thepre-approved bidders that the listing is now available to all potentialbidders. In one embodiment, the seller can inform the pre-approvedbidders of the removal of the pre-approval restriction through email.The pre-approve bidders main page 300 also includes an “add a new item”link 310, which provides access to the pre-approve bidders form page.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary pre-approve bidders form web page 400generated by the Internet-based auction facility 10. The pre-approvebidders form page 400 prompts the seller to provide an item number 402.The item number 402 can be provided by the auction facility 10 andcorresponds to the item for which the seller wishes to pre-approve thebidders. The form page 400 also prompts the seller to add or remove theidentifiers 404 for the bidders whom the seller wishes to authorize tobid on the particular item. The identifier 404 can include the bidderUsername. The bidder identifiers 404 that are added to the form page 400are stored in an authorized bidders table described below with referenceto FIG. 7. The view item web page described below with references toFIGS. 6A and 6B is updated to include the information submitted throughthe form page 400. In one embodiment, if the seller's username 302 doesnot match with the item number 402, the auction facility 10 prompts anerror message asking the seller to recheck the item number 402. In oneembodiment, if the Username for the bidder does not match with aUsername in the bidder table in the database 23, the auction facility 10prompts an error message indicating that the bidder is not registered,suspended, terminated or merged.

FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate an exemplary view item web page 500 generatedby the Internet-based auction facility 10. If the seller has requestedpre-approval restriction for the item, the auction facility 10 flashesan error message 520 when the unauthorized bidders attempt to bid on theitem. An exemplary error message 520 is illustrated in FIG. 6C. Theerror message 520 advises the unauthorized bidder to contact the sellerto seek the pre-approval to bid. The error message 520 can appear in thebidder box area 510. In one embodiment, if the potential bidder is onthe pre-approve bidders list to bid on this item, the auction facility10 prompts him/her with a message to continue with the bidding process.

The view item page 500 includes an “about me” page link 502, whichprovides access to an about me web page. The unauthorized bidders mayvisit the about me page for more details regarding the seller, includingthe seller's vetting process/guidelines. In one embodiment, the “aboutme” page link 502 is added in the item description area 504. In oneembodiment, when the seller removes the pre-approval restriction, therestricted message is removed from the bid box area. In one embodiment,the seller can request pre-approval restriction after the auction hasbegun for the remaining time on the auction. In such a case, in oneembodiment, the seller can manually cancel the bids made prior to theimplementation of the pre-approval restriction.

Database Structure

The auction facility 10 provides the seller with information regardingthe potential bidder such that the seller can make an informeddetermination regarding whether to pre-approve the bidder. Theinformation may include the bidder's bidding history and feedbackprofile. The information is included in the database 23. In oneembodiment, the seller provides the auction facility 10 with the biddercontact information to obtain information regarding the bidder. Thebidder contact information can include the bidder Username or emailaddress. The seller may obtain the bidder contact information directlyfrom the bidder or from the auction facility 10. The auction facility 10matches the contact information provided by the seller with the contactinformation stored in the database 23 to provide the seller with userinformation.

FIG. 7 is a database diagram illustrating an exemplary database 23,maintained by and accessed via the database engine server 22, which atleast partially implements and supports the auction facility 10. Thedatabase 23 may, in one embodiment, be implemented as a relationaldatabase, and includes a number of tables having entries, or records,that are linked by indices and keys. In an alternative embodiment, thedatabase 23 may be implemented as a collection of objects in anobject-oriented database.

The database 23 includes a bidder (or party) table 602, which contains alisting of the registered bidders of the auction facility 10. The biddertable 602 can also be referred to as the user table because each usermay operate as both a bidder and a seller within the auction facility10. The bidder table includes a link to a bidding history table 604 foreach registered bidder. Each bidding history table 604 is populated withthe particular bidder's bidding history records. Each bidding historyrecord may include, inter alia, the title of a listing that was/is beingauctioned via the auction facility 10, the bidder's bidding amount, andbid retraction information. The bid retraction information indicateswhether the bidder retracted his/her bid on a particular item. Two othertables are also shown linked to the bidder table 602, namely a bidderfeedback profile summary table 606 and a bidder feedback profile detailstable 608. The database 23 also includes an authorized bidders table 610for each item for which the seller has requested the pre-approval of thebidders. The authorized bidders table 610 includes a list of bidderidentifiers 404 that are authorized to bid on the particular item. Thebidder identifier 404 can include the bidder Username.

FIG. 8 is a diagrammatic representation of an exemplary embodiment ofthe bidder feedback profile summary table 606. The summary table 606stores a summary of the feedback information regarding the bidders.Sellers and bidders that have experienced a particular bidder's behaviorduring the past auctions provide the feedback information (or comments)regarding to the bidder. The summary table 606 includes a bidderidentifier column 702 that stores, for each bidder, a bidder identifierproviding a pointer to the bidder table 602. The total score column 704stores the total number of feedback comments (e.g., negative, positiveand neutral) received for each bidder. The total negative column 706stores the total number of negative feedback comments received for eachbidder, and the total positive column 708 similarly stores the totalnumber of positive feedback comments received for each bidder. Thenumber of retractions column 710 stores the total number of threads thateach bidder has retracted from auctions.

The summary table 606 provides a summary of the impressions of the usersof the auction facility 10 regarding a particular bidder. Each bidder ofthe summary table 606 is linked to a bidder feedback profile detailstable 608. It is contemplated that other embodiments of the summarytable 606 can include additional information, such as whether the bidderhas a credit card on file with the auction facility 10 and whether thebidder is agreeable to use of an online payment service (e.g.,Billpoint).

FIG. 9 is a diagrammatic representation of one embodiment of the bidderfeedback profile details table 608. The details table 608 is populatedwith entries reflecting the details of each feedback comment or opinionsubmitted by users to the auction facility 10 regarding a particularbidder. Typically, the users submitting the comments include sellers onwhose auction listings the bidder has bid in the past. In one exemplaryembodiment, the users are only permitted to provide feedback pertainingto a transaction upon conclusion of that transaction. The feedbackdetails table 608 includes the item number column 802 that identifiesthe items for which the comments were submitted. The comment column 804stores the actual texts of the feedbacks, comments, or opinions. Thetype column 806 stores the indications as to whether the comments arepositive, negative or neutral. The date column 808 stores the dates onwhich the feedbacks, comments or opinions were received. The responsecolumn 810 stores the texts of the responses submitted by the bidder inresponse to the comments texts stored in column 804. Similarly, therebuttal column 812 stores the texts of the rebuttals to such responses.The commentator column 814 stores the identifiers of the users thatsubmitted the original comments stored in column 804. It is appreciatedthat further dates and other descriptive information may also populatethe details table 608.

The tables 602, 604, 606 and 608 include information that can providethe seller with valuable insights when evaluating a potential bidder. Inone embodiment, the information contained in the tables 602, 604, 606and 608 is easily accessible to the sellers. The seller can provide thebidder's identifier such as the Username or email address to access theinformation stored in the tables 602, 604, 606 and 608. It iscontemplated that the databases of alternate embodiments can includeadditional tables that provide additional bidders related information.

FIG. 10 illustrates the flow chart of one embodiment of a method 900 forseller authorized bidding through an Internet-based auction facility 10.It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that with certainmodifications the method 900 is applicable in many different types ofnetwork-based, and network-based, commerce systems.

At block 902, a seller registered with the auction facility 10 logs onto a website that provides access to the auction facility 10. If theseller were already logged on, then he/she need not logon again to userequest the pre-approval restriction. The suspended, merged, orterminated seller who cannot use any other feature on the auctionfacility 10 is prohibited from using the seller authorized biddingfeature.

At block 904, the seller identifies the item for which he wishes to addthe pre-approval restriction. At block 906, an alert text appears on theitem web page to alert the potential bidders to get a pre-approval fromthe seller to bid on the item. The item web page or another web pagelinked to the item web page provides the potential bidder with theseller contact information and vetting process information. At block908, the potential bidder contacts the seller and requests permission tobid on the item. In one embodiment, the bidder must be registered withand logged on to the auction facility 10. The bidder provides the sellerwith a bidder identifier, such as the Username or email address. Atblock 910, the seller uses the bidder identifier to retrieve and viewthe bidder's bidding history and profile information. At block 912, theseller determines whether to add the bidder to the pre-approve bidderslist (i.e., whether to qualifying the bidder to transact (e.g., bid) forthe item). At block 914, if the determination is positive, the selleradds in the bidder identifier identifying the potential bidder to thepre-approve bidders list. The bidder identifier is then added to anappropriate authorization table within the database 23. At block 916, ifthe determination is negative, the bidder identifier is not added to theauthorization table. In one embodiment, the potential bidder is informedthrough email that the seller has rejected his/her request forpre-approval. At block 918, the seller may edit the pre-approve bidderlist. The editing can include the addition of the potential bidder tothe list that was rejected at block 912. The editing can also includethe removal of a bidder from the list.

When a bidder attempts to bid on an item, the authorization module 40checks whether the bidder identifier is included in the itemauthorization table. If the bidder identifier is included in the itemauthorization table, the bidder is allowed (or enabled) to bid on theitem. If the bidder identifier is not included in the item authorizationtable, the bidder receives an error message.

Automatic Qualification/Disqualification of a Party to Transact

The embodiment of the present invention described above implemented apartially manual qualification/disqualification process where a firstparty (e.g., a seller) manually qualified or disqualified a second party(e.g., a potential buyer) to transact for an item via a network-basedcommerce system (e.g., of the auction facility 10). Thereafter, thequalification of the second party was performed by having the firstparty submit identification criteria (e.g., a username or e-mailaddress), identifying the second party, to the network-based commercesystem. The network-based commerce system then automatically qualifiesthe second party to transact for an item when the second satisfies theidentification criterion (e.g., when the identity of the second party isconfirmed through an appropriate login process).

A further embodiment of the present invention is described below whereinthe automatic qualification of the second party to transact for an itemwithin a commerce system may be performed utilizing a broad scope ofcriteria. In this way, a first party (e.g., seller) can potentially havethe commerce system automatic qualify or disqualify a second party fromtransacting with respect to a specific item, or with respect to a numberof items, associated with the first party without requiring that thefirst party manually to approve or disapprove the second party.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary commerce system1100 that may at least partially perform the automatic qualification, ordisqualification, of a second party to transact for an item. Thecommerce system 110 may implement any one or more of a number oftransaction processes, such as auction, fixed price, reverse auction,declining price auction, or bulk-purchase processes. The commerce system1100 illustrated in FIG. 11 includes an application server 1102 (e.g.,the CGI server 18 illustrated in FIG. 1) that communicates with a webserver 1104 (e.g., a page server 112 as illustrated in FIG. 1) and adatabase engine server 1106 (e.g., the database engine server 22illustrated in FIG. 1). The application server 1102 hosts a number ofapplication modules that perform functions related to the operation ofthe commerce system 1100. For example, the application server 1102 isshown to include a qualification module 1108 that operates, in a mannerdescribed below, to qualify parties to transact with respect to an itemvia the commerce system 110. The application server 1102 alsoincorporates a transaction module 1110 that operates to implement atransaction process (e.g., an auction or fixed price transactionprocess) via which an item may be transacted between two or moreparties.

Data required by the various modules of the application server 1102 isrequested by, and communicated to, the application server 1102 from thedatabase engine server 1106. To this end, the database engine server1106 may host a number of queries, or stored procedures, that operate toretrieve requested data from a database 1112. For example, the databaseengine server 1106 is shown to host item records queries 1114, criteriaqueries 1116 and profile queries 1118. The utilization of these querieswill be described in further detail below.

The application server 1102 also communicates data to, and receives datafrom, a web server 1104. The web server 1104 is responsible, in oneembodiment, for the generation and transmission of user interfaceinformation (e.g., a markup language document such as an HTML document)that may be utilized by a client application (e.g., a browser) executingon a computing device (e.g., a personal computer, Personal DigitalAssistant (PDA), mobile telephone, etc.) to generate a user interfacefor the display of data to, and the receipt of data from, a user of thecommerce system 110. To this end, the web server 1104 is shown toinclude a page build module 1120 to construct user interface informationand a parser 1122 utilized to deconstruct data transmissions receivedvia a communications network (e.g., the Internet 34).

Having now provided an architectural description of an exemplarycommerce system 1100, a description of the operation of the exemplarycommerce system 1100 will be provided below with reference to a numberof flow charts and user interface diagrams.

FIG. 12 is a flow chart illustrating a method 1200, according to anexemplary embodiment of the present invention, whereby a first party(e.g., a seller user of the commerce system 1100) may define and specifycriteria to be satisfied by a second party (e.g., a buyer user of thecommerce system 1100) in order for the second party automatically to bequalified to transact for a specific item, or for a number of items(e.g., all items offered for sale by the first party). It willaccordingly be appreciated that the specified criteria may be associatedwith a specific item, or associated with a specific party (e.g., thefirst party).

The method 1200 commences at block 1202 at the commerce system 1100,with the generation and transmission to a first party of data specifying(or relating to) an item and criterion information input user interface.At block 1204, the item and criterion information input user interfaceis generated and displayed to the first party (e.g., a selling user) ona computing device of the first party.

FIG. 13 is a diagrammatic representation of an item and criterioninformation input user interface 1300, according to one exemplaryembodiment of the present invention. The input user interface 1300 isshown to include an item information portion 1302 and a criteriainformation portion 1304. The item information portion 1302 is shown toinclude a number of input fields into which the first user may inputitem information, such as name, price, transaction preference, itemdescription and transaction condition (or parameter) information.Similarly, the criteria information portion 1304 includes a number ofinput fields into which the first party may optionally input criteriathat must be satisfied by a second party in order to qualify the secondparty to transact with respect to the item described in the iteminformation portion 1302, and according to the transaction preferencesand transaction conditions described in the item information portion1302. It will be appreciated that the criteria options that arepresented in the criteria information portion 1304 may be dependent uponthe type of transaction being facilitated by the commerce system 1100,the nature of the item to which the transaction pertains, userpreferences and any number of variables. It will further be appreciatedthat criteria information types (e.g., the non-exhaustive list ofexemplary criteria options described below) may also be used for thepurpose of manual qualification of party to participate in anetwork-based commerce transaction. For example, each of the criteriaoptions described below may be retrieved from the bidders biddinghistory or profile information thereby enabling the seller to make adetermination whether the bidder may be added to a preapproved bidderslist.

FIG. 13 provides a non-exhaustive list of exemplary criteria optionsthat may be presented to the first party. A geographic criterion (orconstraint) to be satisfied by a qualified second party may specify ageographic location (e.g., continent, country, state, city, town, zipcode) in which a second party must decide to qualify to transact. Ageographic constraint may also be expressed as a distance from apredetermined location (e.g., a maximum distance from the hometown ofthe first party). An age criteria (or constraint) may restrict aqualified second party to exceeding a predetermined minimum agethreshold, to being below a predetermined maximum age threshold, or tobe within a particular age range (e.g., 20-34 years old).

A reputation criterion (or constraint) may require that a qualifiedsecond party have a minimum predetermined reputation within the commercesystem 1100. For example, the commerce system 1100 may implement areputation system whereby the reputation of a particular user isexpressed according to a particular scale or as a score. Any number offactors may contribute towards the establishment and definition of areputation of a user, such as feedback from parties with whom therelevant user has interacted utilizing the commerce system 1100 (e.g., anumber of negative of positive feedback comments), a history oftransaction activity by the relevant user with respect to the commercesystem 1100, and a history of violations of rules established by thecommerce system 1100. A reputation measure may also be established byother factors, such as the amount of time that a particular user hasbeen an active or registered user of the commerce system 1100, the ageof the user, a financial standing of the user, etc.

A prior activity criterion (or constraint) may require that a qualifiedsecond party not have undertaken, or engaged in (or alternatively havepositively undertaken or engaged in) a specified prior transactionactivity. For example, the prior activity criterion may dictate that aqualified second party not have previously retracted a bid within anauction transaction process facilitated by the commerce system 1100, orthat the qualified second party not have retracted more than apredetermined maximum threshold number of bids within one or moreauction transaction processes, optionally within a predetermined time.On the other hand, the prior activity criterion may require that aqualified second party have made a payment to a further party with whichthe second party transacted within a predetermined time period, or havedelivered a purchased item within a predetermined time period or in apredetermined condition, in order for the second party to be qualified.

A time/date criterion (or constraint) may limit the time/date duringwhich a second party is qualified to transact with respect to an item,or may act as a supplement criterion to the define a further criterion.For example, in the time/date criterion may be utilized to identify atime interval within which the prior activity specified by the prioractivity criterion must have occurred in order to qualify ordisqualified the second party (e.g., may specify a time interval withinwhich a predetermined number of bid retractions must have occurred inorder to disqualify the second party).

A financial criterion (or constraint) may require that a qualifiedsecond party, for example, have a credit rating above a predeterminedminimum value, or not have previously been declared bankrupt. Afinancial criterion may also require that a qualified second party havea history of making payment within a predetermined maximum time period,or have a predetermined amount of funds (or credit resource) within anaccount with the commerce system 1100, or with a financial institutionassociated with or accessible by the commerce system 1100. The financialcriterion may also require that to the second party have a credit cardon record with the commerce system 1100, or agreed to use a particularpayment service (e.g., Billpoint or PayPal).

A language criterion (or constraint) may require that a qualified secondparty indicate a predetermined language preference, or have previouslytransacted via the commerce system 1100 in a particular language, inorder to qualify. Similarly, a currency activity criterion (orconstraint) may require that a qualified second party have previouslytransacted in a predetermined currency. Finally, the exemplary criterioninformation may also allow the first party to implement a manualoverride for a fully automatic approval process, whereby manual approvalby the first party of a second party is required in order to finallyqualify the second party to transact, even if the second party succeedsin satisfying the criterion associated with a particular item.

The input user interface 1300 may optionally also allow the first partyto specify relationships between one or more criterion so as tofacilitate the formulation of a “qualification formula” or a complexqualification policy that is expressed in terms of multiple criterion.For example, the input user interface 1300 may facilitate specificationof an AND or OR operation between two or more criterion. In this matter,the first party may, for example, specify qualification formula thatrequires that a qualified second party reside within a predeterminedgeographic area and not have received more than a predetermined numberof negative feedback comments.

Returning now to the method 1200 illustrated in FIG. 12, havinggenerated and displayed the input user interface at block 1204, at block1206 the first party (e.g., a selling user) inputs items and criterioninformation into the item and criterion information input userinterface. At block 1208, the inputted item and criterion information istransmitted from the first party to the commerce system 1100.

At block 1210, the commerce system 1100 generates an item record that iswritten into an items table within the database 1112 and a criteriarecord that is written into a criteria table, also maintained within thedatabase 1112. Specifically, upon receipt of the transmitted item andcriterion information at a web server 1104, the parser 1122 extracts theitem and criterion information, which is then communicated to thedatabase engine server 1106. The database engine server 1106 proceeds tobuild the appropriate records and write them into the appropriate tableswithin the database 1112.

FIG. 14 is a diagrammatic representation of an exemplary items table1400, and indicates the various fields that may be populated for eachrecord within this table 1400.

FIG. 15 is a diagrammatic representation of an exemplary criteria table1500. Each record within the criteria table 1500 is shown to include acriteria identifier 1502 that may operate as a primary key for the table1500, and be utilized to associate a particular criterion record withone or more item records within the items table 1400 or with one or moreparty (e.g., user) records of within a party table 602. A record withinthe criteria table 1500 may also include an Approved Second Party entry1504 that identifies the parties (e.g., users) for which records existwithin the party table 602 and that have been manually approved totransact by the first party. In an alternative embodiment, as discussedabove, a Preapproved Parties table may be maintained separate of thecriteria table 1500. An entry within the Approved Second Party field1504 of a particular record within the criteria table 1500 may also belinked to a record within an authorized party table 610.

Having received item information relating to and describing an item, andcriterion information specifying at least one criterion to be satisfiedby a second party in order for the second party to be qualified totransact for an item, according to one embodiment of the presentinvention, a criteria enforcement process is implemented by the commercesystem 1100. In one embodiment, the criteria enforcement processinvolves automatically determining whether a second party satisfies atleast one criterion specified by the criterion information and, if so,then automatically qualifying the second party to transact for an item,or group of items, via the commerce system 110. As described above,through the item and criterion information input user interface 1300,the commerce system 1100 allows a first party to specify one or morecriterion to be satisfied by a second party to qualify to transact. Asalso described above, the first user, when specifying multiple criteria,can define a qualification formula or function utilizing the multiplecriteria. For example, the first party has the option of specifying ANDand OR relationships between individual criterion so as to construct acustomized qualification formula (or function).

In one embodiment, the criteria enforcement process is performed by thequalification module 1108 of the application server 1102. Thequalification module 1108 makes an assessment as to whether a secondparty satisfies one or more criterion specified by a first partyutilizing input received from the second party via a user interface andcommunicated to the web server 1104, or utilizing data regarding thesecond party extracted from the database 1112 by the database engineserver 1106.

FIG. 16 is a flow chart illustrating a first exemplary method 1600whereby a commerce system 1100 may automatically qualify a second partyto transact, or disqualify a second party from transacting, with respectto a particular item, or group of items.

The method 1600 commences at block 1602 with the generation andtransmission of navigation user interface data from the commerce system1100 to a second user (e.g., to a personal computer or mobile deviceoperated by the second user). Specifically, the page build module 1120of the web server 1104 may, in one embodiment, construct a markuplanguage document that instructs the generation of a suitable navigationuser interface to the second party. The navigation user interface mayfacilitate navigation of a large number of items offered for transactingby the commerce system 1100 according to any one or more of a number oftransaction processes. For example, the navigation user interface mayallow the second party to perform key word searches of item descriptionscontained in the items table 1400. The navigation user interface mayalso allow the second party to locate items of interest by browsingestablished categories supported by the commerce system 1100. Forexample, with reference to FIG. 14, it will be noted that the itemstable 1400 includes a category field whereby a particular item may beconveniently categorized according to a category scheme supported by thecommerce system 1100.

At block 1604, a navigation user interface is generated and displayed tothe second party. For example, where the navigation user interface datacomprises a markup language document, a browser operating on a personalcomputer of the second user may utilize the user interface data togenerate and display the navigation user interface.

At block 1606, the second party (e.g., a buyer user), inputs navigationinformation into the navigation user interface with the purpose oflocating one or more item records that are of interest. As mentionedabove, the second party may, for example, provide search key words, orspecify a certain item category, with a view to locating item records ofinterest.

At block 1608, the navigation information inputted into the navigationuser interface, as well as an identifier identifying the second party,is transmitted to the commerce system 1100. For example, the identifieridentifying the second party may be a session ID established during anonline session between the second party and the commerce system 1100, oran identifier extracted from a cookie stored on a computing deviceoperated by the second party. Further, the identifier for the secondparty may be a user ID entered by the second party into the navigationuser interface (or a preceding logon interface)

At block 1610, the navigation information is received by the commercesystem 1100, and specifically by the parser 1122 of the web server 1104that operates to extract the navigation information from a networktransmission. The parser 1122 then communicates the navigationinformation (e.g., a search term or a category identifier) to anappropriate item records query 1114 that locates item records within theitems table 1400 according to the navigation information. The locateditem records are then communicated from the item records query 1114 tothe qualification module 1108.

At block 1612, in one embodiment, identifiers for the located itemrecords are communicated from the item records query 1114 to a criteriaquery 116 that, at block 1612, accesses, searches and locates criteriarecords within the criteria table 1500 that are associated with thelocated items. As noted above with reference to FIG. 16, a criteriaidentifier 1502 may map to one or more records within the items table1400.

A criteria record within the criteria table 1500 may also be associatedwith a particular party, for which a record exists within the partytable 602. In this case, an appropriate criteria query 1116 may operateto identify a first party associated with a specific located item record(e.g., a seller), and then perform a query against the party table 602to identify one or more criteria identifiers 1502 associated with therelevant first party. Having then located a criteria identifierassociated with the first party, the criteria query 116 may then accessthe criteria table 1500 to locate and retrieve an appropriate criteriarecord. It will be appreciated that where multiple located item recordsexist, different criteria records may be associated with each of theseitem records, either directly or indirectly through a first party (e.g.,a seller). Accordingly, a criteria record may in this way be associatedwith each of the located item records.

At decision box 1614, for each located item record, a determination ismade as to whether a criterion, or multiple criteria, specified within acriteria record associated with the item record is satisfied. It will ofcourse be appreciated that this determination is dependent upon thecriterion specified by the appropriate criteria record, and optionallyalso by the nature of the criteria formula (or function) that may beexpressed in terms of such multiple criterion.

Examples of criterion that may be specified are described above withreference to the input user interface 1300 illustrated in FIG. 13 andthe criteria table 1500, illustrated in FIG. 15. In order to assesswhether a single criterion, multiple criteria, or even a criteriaformula is satisfied by the second party, it will be appreciated thatinformation regarding the second party is required. In one exemplaryembodiment, the determination made at decision block 1614 is made by thequalification module 1108 of the application server 1102, utilizingcriteria records located by one or more criteria queries 1116, andprofile data concerning the second party extracted by one or moreprofile queries 1118 from profile tables maintained within the database1112. The identifier for the second party, transmitted to the commercesystem 1100 at block 1608 is parsed by the parser 1122 of the web server1104, and utilized at decision block 1614 to identify profile recordswithin profile tables for the second party.

FIG. 18 provides diagrammatic representations of two such exemplaryprofile tables that may be maintained within the database 1112, namely amaster profile table 1800 and an activity profile table 1802. Theexemplary master profile table 1800 is populated with records for eachparty that has registered to utilize the commerce system 1100. Eachrecord contains personal information regarding the appropriate partythat may be voluntary submitted by the relevant party, or gleaned fromexternal sources. For example, a record within the master profile table1800 may indicate the address, language preference, currency preference,age and credit rating of an appropriate party. The address, languagepreference, currency preference and age information may be gleaned fromthe relevant party as part of a registration process for utilization ofthe commerce system 1100. The credit rating information may, asillustrated, be obtained from a third party credit bureau.

The activity profile table 1802 may similarly contain a record for eachparty that utilizes the commerce system 1100. However, this profiletable 1802 may contain information reflecting behavioral andtransactional characteristics of the relevant party, as observed ortracked by the commerce system 1100 over a period of time. Both positiveand negative characteristics or activities of a particular party may berecorded within the profile table 1802. For example, the exemplaryactivity profile table 1802 is show to maintain an indication of anumber of bids retracted by a particular party within the context ofauction process transactions. A record within the activity profile table1802 may also indicate a number of payment failures associated with therelevant party, a number of delivery failures associated with therelevant party, a total of number of complaints received against, orissued by, the relevant party, and a total number of violations of rulesof the commerce system 1100 attributable to the relevant party. It willof course be appreciated that a wide range of other activities andcharacteristics of a particular party may be tracked within one or moretables similar to the activity profile table 1802. Of course, theactivities or characteristics tracked within a profile table 1802 may besuch so as to support the various criteria options that may be presentedto a first party within a criterion information portion 1304 of an itemand criterion information input user interface 1300.

In the exemplary embodiment, the qualification module 1108, havingcollected one or more criteria records and the appropriate profileinformation regarding the second user, is able to make a determinationas to whether the second party satisfies one or more criterionassociated with a specific item record.

If the criteria expressed by a criteria record associated with aparticular item record are determined to have been satisfied at decisionblock 1614, at block 1616, the relevant item record is added to a set ofnavigation results. The set of navigation results includes, in oneembodiment, only those item records for which the second party isidentified as being a qualified party. At decision block 1618, adetermination is made as to whether there are further item records forwhich associated criteria must be assessed. If so, the method 1600 loopsback to decision block 1614.

Similarly, if the criteria associated with a particular located itemrecord are determined at decision block 1614 not to be satisfied, themethod 1600 progresses directly from decision block 1614 to decisionblock 1618.

Once it has been determined at decision block 1618 that no further itemrecords require consideration, the method 1600 progresses to block 1620.At block 1620, the commerce system 1100, and specifically the page buildmodule 1120 of the web server 1104, generates and transmits navigationresult user interface data to the user. The navigation result userinterface data includes an identifier for each of the located itemrecords that were included within the navigation results at block 1616.The page build module 1120 receives the navigation results from thequalification module 1108. In addition to communicating the navigationresults to the page build module 1120, the qualification module 1108also operates to enable the second party to transact for itemsidentified in the navigation results. In one embodiment, this enablementis achieved by including an identifier for the second party within theApproved Second Party field 1504 of the appropriate criteria table 1500.In an alternative embodiment, the items table 1400 may include anApproved Second Party field (not shown) in which an indication of secondparties that have been approved, manually or automatically, is stored.

At block 1628, an application executing on a computing device (e.g., abrowser executing on a personal computer) generates and displays anavigation result user interface, identifying the navigation results.

At block 1624, the second party selects an item from the navigationresults to transact. From block 1624, a transaction process, facilitatedin one embodiment by a transaction module 1110 of the application server1102, is commenced. Further details regarding an exemplary transactionprocess are described below with reference to FIG. 17.

In summary, it will be appreciated that the exemplary criterionenforcement process implemented by the method 1600 operates to enable aqualified second party to transact with respect to an item by onlypresenting details regarding the item to the second party once thesecond party has been qualified. In other words, the qualificationprocess acts as a filter so that the second party is only presented withthe details for items for which the second party has been automatically(or manually) pre-qualified. This exemplary embodiment has the advantageof not frustrating the second party by allowing the commencement of atransaction process with respect to an item for which the second partymay not qualify to transact.

FIG. 17 is a flow chart illustrating a second exemplary enforcementprocess that may be implemented by a method 1700. Blocks 1702-1710correspond substantially to the operations performed at blocks 1602-1610described above with reference to FIG. 16. Moving on to block 1712, aset of navigation results is constructed to include all item recordslocated at block 1710 utilizing the navigation information (e.g., asearch term or a category identifier). The method 1700 thus differs fromthe method 1600 in that the navigation results include all record itemslocated by a search and not only item records for which a particularsecond party qualifies.

At block 1714, the page build module 1120 of the web page server 1104builds navigation results user interface data utilizing the navigationresults as received directly from an item records query 1114 andtransmits this navigation result user interface data to a computingdevice operated by a second party for display.

At block 1716, an appropriate application executing on a computingdevice operated by the second party (e.g., a browser being executed on apersonal computer) operates to generate and display a navigation resultuser interface that includes identifiers for each item record includedwithin the navigation results.

At block 1718, the second party selects one or more items from thenavigation results for which the second party wishes to commence atransaction process utilizing the commerce system 1100. For example, thesecond party may select a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) associated witha particular item to perform the selection of the item.

At block 1720, information identifying the selected item is transmittedfrom the computing device operated by the second user to the commercesystem 1100. For example, an HTTP PUT request may be dispatched from thecomputing device responsive to user selection of a URL associated withthe selected item.

At block 1722, the parser 122 of the web server 1104 receives the datatransmission initiated at block 1720, and parses the transmission tolocate an identifier identifying the selected item. The parser 1122 thencommunicates the extracted identifier to an appropriate item recordquery 1114 of the database engine server that performs access, searchand location operations with respect to the criteria table 1500 toidentify a criteria record, specifying one or more criterion, associatedwith the selected item. It will of course be appreciated that thislookup operation may involve initially performing a lookup on an itemstable to obtain a relevant criteria ID with which to perform a lookup onthe criteria table 1500.

Again, a criteria record may be associated directly with an itemsrecord, or may be associated indirectly with an item record throughbeing associated directly with a party record for a party (e.g., thefirst party acting in the capacity of a seller) associated with anappropriate items record.

At decision block 1724, the qualification module 1108 of the applicationserver 1102 operates to make a determination regarding whether a singlecriterion, or criteria, specified by the located criteria record issatisfied. As described above with reference to FIG. 16, thisdetermination at block 1724 may, in one embodiment, involve thequalification module 1108 invoking one or more profile queries 1106against profile tables stored within the database 1112 in order toretrieve profile information (e.g., from a master profile table 1800 andan activity profile table 1802) pertaining to the second party. Thesecond party may be identified in any one of a number of ways (e.g.,utilizing a session identifier initiated following a logon process, orutilizing identify information stored within a cookie on a computingdevice of the second party).

Following a positive determination by the qualification module 1108, atblock 1726, the second party is qualified and enabled to transact forthe relevant item. As described above, the enablement of the second usermay involve storing appropriate identifier information within a relevantrecord within the criteria table 1500, the items table 1400 and/or theparty table 602.

As a result of the qualification and enablement at block 1726, thetransaction module 1110 is invoked to generate and communicatetransaction information pertaining to the relevant item to the pagebuild module 1120, which then generates and transmits transaction userinterface data to a computing device of the second user.

At block 1730, an application executing on the client computing device(e.g., a browser executing on a personal computer) operates to generateand display a transaction user interface. The transaction module 1110may operate to facilitate one or more transaction processes (e.g., aregular auction process and/or a fixed price process) via which the itemmay be transacted. Accordingly, the transaction user interface data, andthe transaction user interface itself will reflect informationconcerning the one or more transaction processes supported by thetransaction module 1110.

At block 1732, the second party then inputs appropriate transactiondata. For example, within an auction process, the transaction data mayinclude a bid specifying a price and other information specific to theauction type. In the case of a fixed price process, the transaction datamay be acceptance of an offer to purchase an item at a fixed price, oran offer to purchase an item at a particular fixed price.

At block 1734, the transaction data is transmitted by the computingdevice of the second party to the commerce system 1100 for processing bythe transaction module 1110 within the context of an appropriatetransaction process.

Returning to decision block 1724, following a negative determination atblock 1726, the second party is disqualified and disabled fromtransacting for the particular item, and a decline user interface datais generated and transmitted to the second party at block 1738. At block1740 an application executing on a client machine operated by the secondparty generates and displays a decline user interface, advising thesecond party that the second party has been disqualified fromtransacting for the item. In this case, the decline user interface mayoptionally provide one or more reasons to the second party for thedisqualification by the qualification module 1108. For example, thesecond party may be advised that he or she has been disqualified as aresult of an excessive number of retracted bids within a predeterminedtime period (e.g., one month) preceding a current date.

In summary, the exemplary criteria enforcement process implemented bythe method 1700 is advantageous in that the qualification assessment,performed at block 1724, is only performed for a selected item in whicha second party indicates express interest. This is different from theexemplary criteria enforcement process of method 1600 where thequalification process is performed with respect to each and every itemlocated by a search. Accordingly, the criterion enforcement process ofmethod 1700 is advantageous in that it may be computationally lessdemanding of the commerce system 1100.

It will be appreciated that the exemplary enforcement criteriaenforcement processes described above as being implemented by methods1600 and 1700 are merely two examples of multiple ways in which acriteria enforcement policy may be implemented. For example, aqualification assessment may be made at any stage during a particularnavigation or transaction process. Furthermore, a criterion expressedwithin a criteria record may be of such a nature that a determination asto whether the criterion is satisfied may only be made once thetransaction process has progressed to a certain stage. For example, thecriterion may comprise a transaction criterion that relates totransaction activity pertaining to the transaction of the specific item.In this case, the transaction criterion may specify that a second partybecomes disqualified from transacting for the item when the second partysubmits a bid price offer that is in excess of a threshold value thatclearly exceeds any reasonable offer price for the relevant item. Suchan excessive bid offer price may be indicative of the fact that the bidoffer lacks sincerity, and is in fact a hoax. Further, the transactioncriteria may operate automatically to disqualify the second party fromtransacting further with respect to a particular item when the secondparty performs a particular transaction activity. For example, were thesecond party to retract a bid for a particular item, this transactionactivity may disqualify the second party from attempting to againtransact for the specific item (e.g., submit a further bid) for therelevant item.

The above exemplary embodiments of the present invention have beendescribed with reference to transactions pertaining to an item. It willbe understood that an item covers both a product (or goods) and aservice (or services).

FIG. 19 shows a diagrammatic representation of machine in the exemplaryform of a computer system 1900 within which a set of instructions, forcausing the machine to perform any one of the methodologies discussedabove, may be executed. In alternative embodiments, the machine maycomprise a network router, a network switch, a network bridge, PersonalDigital Assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a web appliance or anymachine capable of executing a sequence of instructions that specifyactions to be taken by that machine. Within the context of the aboveexemplary embodiments, the machine may a server machine on which any ofthe described servers may be hosted. The machine may also comprise acomputing device utilized by a party to access and interact with thecommerce system 1100.

The computer system 1900 includes a processor 1902, a main memory 1904and a static memory 1906, which communicate with each other via a bus1908. The computer system 1900 may further include a video display unit1910 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a cathode ray tube (CRT)).The computer system 1900 also includes an alphanumeric input device 1912(e.g., a keyboard), a cursor control device 1914 (e.g., a mouse), a diskdrive unit 1916, a signal generation device 1918 (e.g., a speaker) and anetwork interface device 1920.

The disk drive unit 1916 includes a machine-readable medium 1922 onwhich is stored a set of instructions (i.e., software) 1924 embodyingany one, or all, of the methodologies described above. The software 1924is also shown to reside, completely or at least partially, within themain memory 1904 and/or within the processor 1902. The software 1924 mayfurther be transmitted or received via the network interface device1920. For the purposes of this specification, the term “machine-readablemedium” shall be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing,carrying or encoding a sequence of instructions for execution by themachine and that cause the machine to perform any one of themethodologies of the present invention. The term “machine-readablemedium” shall accordingly be taken to included, but not be limited to,solid-state memories, optical and magnetic disks, and carrier wavesignals.

Thus, a method and system to qualify a party to transact within anetwork-based commerce facility have been described. Although thepresent invention has been described with reference to specificexemplary embodiments, it will be evident that various modifications andchanges may be made to these embodiments without departing from thebroader spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, thespecification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative ratherthan a restrictive sense.

1. A method to facilitate computer-based commerce, the method including:receiving, from a first party, item information relating to an item tobe offered for sale via a computer-based commerce system; receiving,from the first party, criterion information specifying at least onecriterion to be satisfied by a second party in order for the secondparty to be qualified to bid for purchase of the item via thecomputer-based commerce system, the at least one criterion comprising anactivity criterion relating to previous bidding activity of the secondparty within the computer-based commerce system; automaticallydetermining whether the second party satisfies the at least onecriterion; and automatically qualifying the second party to bid for theitem via the computer-based commerce system when the second partysatisfies the at least one criterion.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereinwhen the second party fails to satisfy the at least one criterion,automatically disqualifying the second party from bidding for the itemvia the computer-based commerce system.
 3. The method of claim 2,wherein the qualifying the second party includes, at the computer-basedcommerce system, enabling the second party to establish a transactionwith respect to the item, and wherein the disqualifying the second partyincludes, at the computer-based commerce system, preventing the secondparty from establishing the transaction with respect to the item.
 4. Themethod of claim 2, wherein the qualifying the second party includes, atthe computer-based commerce system, making the item information relatingto the item available to the second party, and wherein the-disqualifyingthe second party includes, at the computer-based commerce system, hidingthe item information relating to the item from the second party.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the criterion information specifies aplurality of criteria.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the criterioninformation specifies a relationship among the plurality of criteria soas to define a criterion function.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein theat least one criterion comprises an identification criterion identifyingthe second party, and wherein the determining includes determiningwhether the second party satisfies the identification criterion.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, including receiving a request from the second partyto bid for the item.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least onecriterion comprises a geographic criterion specifying a geographiclocation associated with the second party.
 10. The method of claim 1,wherein the at least one criterion comprises an age criterion.
 11. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the at least one criterion comprises areputation criterion relating to a reputation of the second party withinthe computer-based commerce system.
 12. The method of claim 11, whereinthe reputation on the second party is at least partially determined byfeedback information provided to the computer-based commerce system by athird party.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the feedbackinformation indicates a score on a feedback scale.
 14. The method ofclaim 12, wherein the feedback information is positive or negative. 15.The method of claim 1, wherein the activity criterion identifies aspecific previous transaction of the previous bidding activity that,when performed by the second party, disqualifies the second party frombeing authorized to bid for the item via the computer-based commercesystem.
 16. The method of claim 1, wherein the activity criterionspecifies a threshold for the previous bidding activity that, ifexceeded by the second party, disqualifies the second party from beingauthorized to bid for the item via the computer-based commerce system.17. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one criterion comprisesa transaction criterion relating to transaction activity pertaining to atransaction for the item.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein thetransaction criterion includes submitting a purchase offer price for theitem that exceeds a threshold value.
 19. The method of claim 1, whereinthe criterion information is associated with the item information andpertains only to the item.
 20. The method of claim 1, wherein thecriterion information is associated with the first party, and pertainsto a plurality of items to be offered for sale by the first party viathe computer-based commerce system.
 21. The method of claim 1, whereinthe item information identifies and describes of any one of a product ora service.
 22. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining includesaccessing second party information concerning the second party stored bythe computer-based commerce system.
 23. The method claim 22, wherein thesecond party information comprises profile information profiling thesecond party.
 24. The method of claim 23, wherein the profileinformation is submitted by the second party.
 25. The method of claim23, wherein the profile information is automatically generated by thecomputer-based commerce system.
 26. The method of claim 22, wherein thesecond party information includes activity information collected by thecomputer-based commerce system, the activity information to includetransaction activity of the second party while utilizing thecomputer-based commerce system.
 27. The method of claim 1, wherein thecomputer-based commerce system is an auction system, and to offer theitem for sale includes an auction process.
 28. The method of claim 27,wherein the qualification of the second party includes enabling thesecond party to submit a bid for the item within the auction process.29. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer-based commerce system isa fixed-price transaction system, and to offer the item for saleincludes a fixed-price transaction process.
 30. The method of claim 29,wherein the qualification of the second party to bid for the itemincludes enabling the second party to accept an offer for the itemwithin the fixed-priced transaction process.
 31. The method of claim 1,wherein the qualifying the second party to bid for the item includes, atthe computer-based commerce system, recording the second party asqualified to bid with respect to the item.
 32. A system to facilitatecomputer-based commerce, the system including: a web server comprising:a parser configured to receive, from a first party, item informationrelating to an item to be offered for sale via a computer-based commercesystem and criterion information specifying at least one criterion to besatisfied by a second party in order for the second party to bequalified to bid for purchase of the item via the computer-basedcommerce system, the at least one criterion comprising an activitycriterion relating to previous transaction activity of the second partywithin the computer-based commerce system; and a page builder toconstruct user interface information; and an application servercomprising: a qualification module configured to automatically determinewhether the second party satisfies the at least one criterion, and whenthe second party satisfies the at least one criterion, to automaticallyqualify the second party to bid for the item via the computer-basedcommerce system; and a transaction module to implement a sale processfor an item.
 33. The system of claim 32, wherein the qualificationmodule is further to automatically disqualify the second party frombidding for the item via the computer-based commerce system when thesecond party fails to satisfy the at least one criterion.
 34. The systemof claim 32, wherein the criterion information specifies a plurality ofcriteria.
 35. The system of claim 34, wherein the criterion informationspecifies a relationship among the plurality of criteria so as to definea criterion function.
 36. The system of claim 32, wherein thequalification module utilizes the at least one criterion as anidentification criterion to identify the second party, and wherein thequalification module determines whether the second party satisfies theat least one criterion based on whether the second party satisfies theidentification criterion.
 37. The system of claim 32, wherein thetransaction module is to receive a request from the second party to bidfor the item.
 38. The system of claim 32, wherein the at least onecriterion comprises a geographic criterion specifying a geographiclocation associated with the second party.
 39. The system of claim 32,wherein the at least one criterion comprises an age criterion.
 40. Thesystem of claim 32, wherein the at least one criterion comprises areputation criterion relating to a reputation of the second party withinthe computer-based commerce system.
 41. The system of claim 40, whereinthe qualification module at least partially determines the reputation ofthe second party based on feedback information provided to thecomputer-based commerce system by a third party.
 42. The system of claim41, wherein the feedback information indicates a score on a feedbackscale.
 43. The system of claim 41, wherein the feedback information ispositive or negative.
 44. The system of claim 32, wherein the activitycriterion identifies a specific previous transaction activity that, ifperformed by the second party, disqualifies the second party from beingauthorized to bid for the item via the computer-based commerce system.45. The system of claim 32, wherein the activity criterion specifies athreshold for the previous transaction activity that, if exceeded by thesecond party, disqualifies the second party from being authorized to bidfor the item via the computer-based commerce system.
 46. The system ofclaim 32, wherein the at least one criterion comprises a transactioncriterion relating to transaction activity pertaining to a transactionfor the item.
 47. The system of claim 46, wherein the transactioncriterion includes submitting a purchase offer price for the item thatexceeds a threshold value.
 48. The system of claim 32, wherein thecriterion information is associated with the item information andpertains only to the item.
 49. The system of claim 32, wherein thecriterion information is associated with the first party, and pertainsto a plurality of items to be offered for sale by the first party viathe computer-based commerce system.
 50. The system of claim 32, whereinthe item information identifies and describes of any one of a product ora service.
 51. The system of claim 32, wherein the qualification moduleautomatically determines whether the second party satisfies the at leastone criterion by accessing second party information concerning thesecond party stored by the computer-based commerce system.
 52. Thesystem claim 51, wherein the second party information comprises profileinformation profiling the second party.
 53. The system of claim 52,wherein the profile information is submitted by the second party. 54.The system of claim 52, wherein the computer-based commerce systemautomatically generates the profile information.
 55. The system of claim51, wherein the computer-based commerce system collects second partyinformation that includes activity information, the activity informationto include transaction activity of the second party while utilizing thecomputer-based commerce system.
 56. The system of claim 32, wherein thecomputer-based commerce system is an auction system, and offering theitem for sale includes an auction process.
 57. The system of claim 56,wherein the qualification module is further configured to automaticallyenable the second party to bid for the item within the auction process.58. The system of claim 32, wherein the computer-based commerce systemis a fixed-price transaction system, and to offer the item for saleincludes a fixed-price transaction process.
 59. The system of claim 58,wherein the qualification module to automatically qualify the secondparty to bid for the item includes to automatically enable the secondparty to accept an offer for the item within the fixed-pricedtransaction process.
 60. The system of claim 32, wherein thequalification module to automatically qualify the second party at thecomputer-based commerce system includes to record the second party asqualified to bid for the item.
 61. The system of claim 32, wherein thequalification module to automatically qualify the second party, at thecomputer-based commerce system, is to enable the second party toestablish a transaction with respect to the item, and wherein thequalification module is further to prevent a transaction by the secondparty with respect to the item when the second party fails to satisfythe at least one criterion.
 62. The system of claim 32, wherein thequalification module to automatically qualify the second party, at thecommerce system, is further to make the item information that relates tothe item available to the second party, and wherein the qualificationmodule is further to hide the item information that relates to the itemfrom the second party when the second party fails to satisfy the atleast one criterion.
 63. A machine readable medium storing a set ofinstructions that, when executed by the machine, cause the machine to:receive, from a first party, item information that relates to an item tobe offered for sale via a computer-based commerce system; receive, fromthe first party, criterion information to specify at least one criterionto be satisfied by a second party in order for the second party to bequalified to bid for purchase of the item via the computer-basedcommerce system, the at least one criterion comprising an activitycriterion relating to previous bidding activity of the second partywithin the computer-based commerce system; automatically determinewhether the second party satisfies the at least one criterion; andautomatically qualify the second party to bid for the item via thecomputer-based commerce system when the second party satisfies the atleast one criterion.
 64. A system to facilitate computer-based commerce,the system including: a server means for receiving, from a first party,item information relating to an item to be offered for sale via acomputer-based commerce system and criterion information specifying atleast one criterion to be satisfied by a second party in order for thesecond party to be qualified to bid for purchase of the item via thecomputer-based commerce system, the at least one criterion comprising anactivity criterion relating to previous transaction activity of thesecond party within the computer-based commerce system; and anapplication server comprising a qualification module to automaticallydetermine whether the second party satisfies the at least one criterion,and the qualification module to automatically qualify the second partyto bid for the item via the computer-based commerce system when thesecond party satisfies the at least one criterion.
 65. The system ofclaim 64, wherein the at least one criterion includes informationrelating to any previous bid retraction by the second party, wherein thebid was for a previous item offered for sale in the computer-basedcommerce system.